Mother And Daughter Teach Gun Safety To Women

Donna Broome and Candace Ivy of Columbia, S.C., have founded an initiative called Guns ‘N Lipstik to teach women self-defense skills. The mother and daughter share a traumatic history with domestic abuse, and their primary intention is to empower women to avoid such situations when possible—and to extricate themselves when needed. They offer a gun safety course for women, known as Purses and Pistols, which aims to give beginners confidence in handling a firearm.

The safety course uses NRA training materials and in the future may enlist the help of local law enforcement; it culminates in a trip to the gun range, after which participants are encouraged to continue their training. This summer, they will also debut a class for teens, meant to teach warning signs that can stop abuse before it starts.

Armed Citizen Stops Neighborhood Threat

This isn’t your typical Armed Citizen story. Sure, lives were in danger as a predator roamed the neighborhood. But the suspect in question here wasn’t armed and dangerous—it was large and carnivorous.

It was a terrifying few days in Warren County, Mo., as a nearly 15-foot-long, 160-pound Burmese python was on the loose. These massive snakes kill their prey by constriction and have been known to swallow small animals whole. Town residents had seen dogs go missing, chickens vanish and were frightened for their small children.

So when Pauline Horstdaniel woke up and heard her dog barking in the backyard, she awakened her husband. Sure enough, the Python had slithered into their yard. Thinking his handgun wouldn’t be enough to stop the snake, she called her father-in-law. Two blasts from his shotgun put their fears—and the rest of the neighborhood’s—to rest.

New Jersey Poll Shows Overwhelming Opposition To Gun Charges

We’ve covered a variety of terrible incidents in New Jersey, in which well-meaning gun owners were charged for an accidental infraction of the state’s restrictive gun laws. Now it appears that state residents are just as horrified by these abuses as are Second Amendment supporters from other parts of the country. A reader poll on NJ.com asks the question, “Should people with permits to carry guns in other states face criminal prosecution for carrying them in New Jersey?” The results show an overwhelming preference for “No.”

It is reassuring to see that New Jersey residents feel that the charges leveled against citizens like Steffon Josey-Davis and Brian Fletcher are ludicrous. Yet the politicians at the top continue to hold on to these draconian gun laws. It is time for voters to clean house and elect representatives who support their constituents’ rights.

iPhone Emoji Means You’re Armed!

This is simply irresistible: New Yorkers Against Gun Violence (noted for their faux NYC gun store staffed by an actor best known for his role in a hyper-violent video game) wants Apple CEO Tim Cook to strip the caricatured revolver from the iPhone emoji character set.

Yes, really. In an open letter to Cook, NYAGV Executive Director Leah Gunn Barrett asserts: “We realized many Americans unknowingly carry a gun with them every day. The one that was given to them without a background check: The gun emoji.” Translation? Slightly cartoonish pictures of firearms should worry you as much as actual firearms.

Two things come to mind. First, we want your life: If you get paid to worry about drivel like this, you really have it good. Second, if there was ever better proof that gun hatred is largely aesthetic (rather than truly, comprehensively compassionate), we’d like to see it.

Alabama AG Pushing Forward On Gun Owner Rights

Hot on the heels of having gun prohibition signs removed from state highway rest areas, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has now moved to correct other situations where municipalities or other entities were wrongly prohibiting the legal carry of firearms.

After investigation by Luther, the town of Moulton removed signs from the Moulton Recreation Center and H.A. Alexander Park, where carry should not have been prohibited. And when the attorney general questioned a statement on Lawrence County carry permits saying carry was banned in the local courthouse, criminal justice building and any place that served alcohol, the sheriff reprinted the cards.

“Our constitutionally protected right to defend ourselves is under constant threat, in many cases by anti-gun bureaucrats or politicians who have overstepped their authority,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA-ILA. “Strange is putting all state bureaucrats and localities on notice that Alabama will not tolerate any violation of our right to keep and bear arms.”